


Kings and Queens of Promise

by jaekakes



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Abuse mentioned, F/M, Riverparents, and follows their lives, follows FP and Alice, growing up in Sunnyside together, no serpent stands alone, preseries au, senior jones is a good dude, southside serpents, starts at age 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaekakes/pseuds/jaekakes
Summary: we were the kings and queens of promise,we were the victims of our ourselves,maybe the children of a lesser god,between heaven and hell-30 Seconds to MarsThe story of Junior Jones and Allie Smith growing up together as the future king and queen of the Southside Serpents.





	Kings and Queens of Promise

**Author's Note:**

> this story has been sitting in my head since I watched season 1 last year... more to come.

**1986.**

She’d been crawling through his bedroom window since she was six years old and her daddy took the belt for no reason on the day he lost his job at the factory. After a few years, he’d taken to keeping the window unlatched but pinned shut by a rock they’d found on the shores of Sweetwater River. Five years later and Allie Smith was a professional at sneaking quietly into Junior Jones’ bedroom by balancing on the back steps banister before vaulting herself through the window. The few times that Senior had caught her, he’d told the girl she’d make a damn good burglar and they had a front door for a reason but front doors were too normal for the angry, rebellious girl.

For his part, Junior didn’t look up from his book when she slid through his window and perched like a cat on top of his desk for a moment before she hopped down to flop on the bed next to him. He simply shifted his book to one hand and allowed her his free arm as a pillow.

“If Miss Fogarty could see you now,” Allie murmured as she settled her chin below his clavicle. “Forsythe Pendleton Jones, Junior, reading without a gun to his head. You’d lose all your street cred for sure.”

“Shut up,” he told her with a pinch to the baby fat that clung to her shoulder. “I like reading.”

“What’s your poison tonight?” It was his third book of the week. He’d been on a different one when she’d last came through two nights ago.

“ _To Kill A Mockingbird_ ,” he mumbled as he flicked the page. “Mama got it for me when she visited last month.” The boy’s mother had left his father three years ago, off to chase the music according to his daddy but he knew she’d left because his daddy had taken control of the Serpents and Junior would follow in his footsteps. Still, the woman came through every few months and would leave her son with a milk crate full of eight tracks and books from the thrift store in Greendale. The handful of crates and the old guitar she’d used to play on the stage at the Whyte Wyrm were the boy’s few prized possessions.

“That’s on the summer reading list,” she told him. “Junior Jones, you’re doing homework.”

They’d both been picked in the Southside lottery and would be making the trek across town to the new middle school on the Northside come September 1st. The school came with a ridiculously thick rule book and summer homework for the incoming sixth graders. Junior had tossed his on the pyre at the first Serpent bonfire of the summer but Alice had kept hers, read it religiously, and while she hadn’t finished the book list because her daddy was unemployed again she had finished most of the homework before June had ended.

“You can have it when I’m done,” he told her as he ignored her attempts to get a rise outta him.

“Junior.”

He lowered his book to his chest and turned his head to look at her. It was then he noted the dried blood on her split lip and the new bruise under her left eye. He cast the book aside and sat up, brushing his fingers over her wounds. “I’ll get my dad.”

Senior was the only man in all of Riverdale that was willing to go head-to-head with Alex Smith when the man got drunk and went after his little girl. Tears flooded the eleven year old’s eyes and she shook her head. “It was my fault, FP.”

“Allie,” he breathed and crooked a finger under her chin. “You know that ain’t true.”

“I drove mama away and now he’s stuck with me,” she cried. “And he got fired again.”

“Alice.” The boy rarely called her by her first name. She had been his Allie since the day her daddy had brought her with him to the Wyrm when they were three and she’d been set next to little Junior Jones next to the jukebox while their fathers talked Serpent business. “It is not your fault. I’m gonna get my dad, okay?”

“Okay,” she relented and FP kissed her knotted blond curls before leaving his bedroom to retrieve his father.

Forsythe Pendleton, Senior, was a hard old man who had served in Vietnam and expected a lot out of the Serpents and even more out of his son but he had a weak spot for the little girl from four trailers down. His hair and eyes were dark like his son’s and his hands were calloused from years of hard work, he had a presence that put the fear of God into many but he always made the girl feel safe. He stepped into his son’s bedroom to find the girl curled up against the wall on his son’s bed.

“Hey hummingbird,” he greeted her.

“Hi,” she managed as the tears flooded again.

Senior perched on the twin bed and held a hand out to the girl, waiting for her to come to him like she was a scared and injured kitten who would bite and scratch if he reached too far too quickly. It took a long moment before Alice reached out and curled her hand around his and allowed him to pull her into his embrace. “What’s this nonsense I hear about this being your fault, hummingbird?”

“He got fired again,” she told the man. “I drove mama away. I eat too much. I make the electric bill too high by playing my radio. It’s my fault, Senior.”

“No, darlin’,” he told her as he rocked the eleven year old like she was much smaller. “Your daddy has made a lot of bad choices and it’s no excuse for hurting the best thing that ever happened to him. You hear me, Alice? You are the best thing that ever happened to your daddy.”

“Yes, sir.” She sniffled. “Senior?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“How come nobody wants me?”

“Allie,” Junior broke in from the doorway. “I want you.”

Senior chuckled with the wisdom of a grown-up, knowing the truth behind his son’s words and the bond the pair shared. “You’re a Serpent, hummingbird. And what’s the first law?”

“NO SERPENT STANDS ALONE,” the children shouted. They had been asking for their chance at the gauntlet since they were old enough to know what it was.

“That’s right.” He chucked the girl under her chin. “You’re wanted, hummingbird, and you’ve got a family. You’re a Serpent.”

“Not yet,” she countered. “You won’t let us join until high school.”

“That’s a technicality,” he told her. “Someday, you and that boy of mine are going to run the Southside. You’re going to be the strongest Serpent there ever was, Alice Smith. Junior’s going to be king but every hot headed boy needs his counterbalance and that’s you. You’re going to be his queen and the one everyone fears and loves.”

“Yes, sir.”

He scooted the girl off his lap and smiled down at her. “Junior’s gonna get you some clothes to sleep-in and set up a bed for himself on the floor, ya hear? I’ve got some business that your daddy can tend to and make a few dollars but he and I are gonna have a long talk about those bruises. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Senior stood and turned to his son, placing a strong hand on his shoulder. “Boy, you keep that girl safe while I’m gone. That’s your queen. You understand?”

“Yes, sir,” FP told him. “Thank you, daddy.”

“Always.” He dropped a kiss to his son’s forehead and stepped from the room.

Junior fished the cleanest t-shirt he could find from his hamper and a pair of shorts for the girl to sleep in. She changed in his closet, unwilling to go far from the only man she trusted completely. He was sprawled out on the bed again when she stepped out and she hurried across the room to bury herself in his side. “Your daddy said to make a bed on the floor.”

“I can protect you better from right here,” he told her as he wrapped both his arms around her.

“FP?”

“Allie?”

She bit her lip as blue eyes met brown. “Do you love me?”

“Of course I do,” he told her as she relaxed into the bed. “I’m gonna marry you someday, Allie.”

“You are?”

“Mhmm,” he promised. “We get through school and run the Serpents and I’ll get a job - maybe I’ll play in a band. And you can do anything you want. You’ll never have to worry about money, Allie. I’ll take care of you. And you can write books or be a mama or whatever you want. I’m gonna marry you, Alice Smith. I know it.”

“It wouldn’t be so bad being married to you, I guess,” she told him as her mind raced with the idea of being Allie Jones, author. “Does that mean you’re my boyfriend?”

“What’s a boyfriend gotta do?”

She pondered the question for a long moment. “Protect me.”

“Done.”

“Keep my secrets.”

“Sure.”

“Love me.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hold my hand,” she listed off. “Carry my books. Stay by my side.”

“Yeah,” Junior agreed. “I’m your boyfriend.”

“Then you have to kiss me,” the preteen told him. “On the lips.”

The boy wrinkled his nose at the thought. Sure, he was a week away from turning twelve and he knew that girls didn’t have cooties but kissing? He had kissed Jennifer Porter on the cheek during a game of tag in third grade but he’d never kissed anybody on the mouth before. And when people kissed in the movies at the drive-in, he closed his eyes or made gagging noises with all the other Serpent kids. But he’d do it for Allie, for his future queen.

“Alright,” FP told her. “I’ll kiss you.”

Her eyes blew wide as his mouth mashed against hers for a few seconds and before she could get her eyes to close, like all the kisses she’d read about in books, the kiss had ended. She frowned for a moment and kissed him herself. Eyes closed and feeling triumphant. She didn’t quite get the draw, it felt weird and she could feel his teeth mashed against his lips and her split lip had started to ooze blood again. Maybe it’d get better in time. Maybe kissing at eleven was just gross - no matter what Penny Peabody, her thirteen year old cousin, told her.

“Okay,” she pulled away with a nod. “You’re my boyfriend.”

“And you’re my girlfriend,” he agreed.

“Someday when we’re bigger we’ll get married.”

“And we’ll be king and queen of the Serpents.”

She reached behind her to flick off the lamp before sliding down further in the bed. A dark quiet settled over them. Finally, she breathed. “I love you, Junior.”

“I love you, too, Allie,” he promised with a smile and a kiss on her cheek. “Sweet dreams.”


End file.
